Happy Halloween!

Charlie (tin man), Helen (Dorothy), Will (scarecrow), and Joseph (cowardly lion)

We had a nice Halloween, and the kids indulged me by agreeing to my Wizard of Oz theme for costumes (although the tin man was pretty reluctant). We went trick-or-treating on our street and around the esplanade that is a couple of blocks away. Halloween is somewhat tough for Joe, who is afraid of any sort of character in costume or wearing a mask (hmmm, just now realizing how appropriate his costume as the "cowardly" lion was). He's become braver lately, which means that he's now afraid of only the scary costumes. Things like spiderman are okay now. This means that when he helped hand out candy at our house, he perched himself on the porch as a lookout, loudly asking, as a group approached, whether there were any scary ones. Only if we got a group of princesses and fairies would he assist in candy distribution. Nevertheless, I think he had a great time, and he certainly enjoyed the getting the candy part. Will and Helen enjoyed that too. Will, who loves to put things in buckets, loaded up his plastic pumpkin with most of the candy from our own bowl, along with some toy cars and books from the playroom. He didn't really seem to care about eating the candy. Helen was another story. She instinctly knew that the candy was for eating -- although that instinct didn't tell her to take the wrapper off first. Despite the fact that we told all the kids that we had to inspect all their candy for safety before they could eat any, Helen managed to have five lollipops before we even got home.

If it were only made of yellow bricks, this would be the perfect picture.